Thursday, December 31, 2015

Disclaimer: As a Gone For a Run ambassador I was given a complimentary race entry. No other compensation was received. All opinions are mine alone. If you haven't done one of the virtual races by GoneForARun.com then you are missing out! They are so much fun and the race swag is awesome!The next race I'm participating in is the Four Magical Miles Virtual 4 Mile Race!!! This race is a 4 mile virtual race. The race will be held January 21- January 24th. The great thing about a virtual race...you can run it anywhere and at any time! It just has to be during those dates. And you can pick your own course to run! Pretty sweet!I LOVE that this race is geared toward princesses!!! I'm already training to run the Glass Slipper Challenge during Princess Half Marathon weekend at Disney World in February so this race is a perfect addition to my training!

How about the race swag? Included in your entry fee is a race bib (no printed ones...these are on the same paper as the bibs at real races), a pair of pink touchscreen gloves, a pair of cute knee socks, and a glittery princess medal!As with all their races GoneForARun.com also has some race packet add-ons! Add a magical miles glitter women's everyday tee for $15.99!

For $15.99 you can add a pink sparkle tutu! How cute is that??!!!

For $19.99 you can add a tiara medal hanger!

You can also add a sterling silver magical miles necklace for an additional $31.99!

You must register soon in order to receive your race packet in time! Basic registration is $30.00. Add the appropriate amount for any of the add-ons!

And I LOVE that with this race you will be supporting a charity!

By entering this race you will also be running for a cause! A percentage of your race fee will be donated to Give The Kids The World. Give Kids The World Village is a 79-acre, nonprofit resort in Central Florida that provides week long, cost-free vacations to children with life-threatening illnesses and their families. Please visit givekidstheworld.org for more information.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Currently Training For:Double Bridge Run 15KDisney Princess 5KDisney Enchanted 10KDisney Princess Half MarathonRock 'n' Roll New Orleans Half Marathon(Use the code ROADRUNNERGIRL15 to save $15 off)This week's training schedule called for 9 miles! Luckily Jenny was feeling better and could run with me! Her hubby Eric had to run 20 miles for his marathon training so he ran some of it with us!We decided to change our route some. We headed to the next town over to run. This is one of my favorite routes. We start and end by the bay! I woke up that morning to weather that was not great for a long run. It was 71 degrees and 100% humidity! Yikes! At least I was going to have good company!I wasn't real sure how this run would go. The day before was Christmas Day so I ate all kinds of Christmas food. I also didn't eat my normal pre run pizza the night before. I was hoping I would have the fuel I needed to run 9 miles.Jenny was kind enough to drop water for us at mile 4.5 the day before. I was very thankful for that!The run started out great! But it didn't take long for us to start sweating buckets! It was so hot and humid! We kept each other's minds off the run by talking. We talked about our Christmas. And tons of other things as well. That's one thing Jenny and I don't have a problem with...having things to talk about lol! Before long we had made it halfway and to our water stop! Of course we had to take a few pics before starting the run again!

And Jenny put our names on our water bottles! We are a prince and princesses in training you know!!!

We took a selfie with Eric. He was going to keep going and we were turning around to head back. I was very thankful to only have 4.5 miles to go. Eric still had 15.5 miles!

Jenny and I headed back. We struggled this last half. It was so hot and humid. It was hard to breathe. But we knew we could do it. It made us pray that Princess weekend isn't hot and humid though. Last year the half was pretty hot. Hopefully it will be nice and cool.

Finally we reached the bay again. That meant we only had about half a mile to go. I picked it up for a strong finish. 9 miles...DONE!!! And at a decent pace for such awful weather conditions!

We are so very blessed to have such beautiful scenery to run by! I just love living on the Gulf Coast!!!

And I'm so very thankful to have such an amazing friend to run with! So blessed to have Jenny in my life! And I'm so excited we will be running Princess together!!!

This run may have been a struggle but I looked pretty cute! My hubby got me this new Lululemon skirt for Christmas! I LOVE it! And Jenny made my day when she said the color combo I chose looked like Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)!!!

After our run we had some time until Eric would be finished with his run. So what are two princesses to do? Get Starbucks coffee of course! And it was the perfect treat after those hard 9 miles!

After our coffee we both thought that the run wasn't so bad. It's funny how coffee and being done with the run can change your perspective lol!

Another training run in the books!

QOTD: What has the weather been like where you live? Are you experiencing normal winter weather? Or abnormal hot weather?

Monday, December 28, 2015

Hey everyone! How was your Christmas??? Ours was amazing! We had such a wonderful time celebrating Jesus's birthday with our family!

We enjoyed our week off from school the week of Christmas. But Wednesday morning wasn't fun. I was awoken by my phone blaring that there was a tornado warning. I had to wake the boys up and we spent about an hour in the bathroom until the warning expired. Very scary! I grabbed their kindles so they would have something to focus on other than the tornado warning. Thankfully there wasn't any tornado that touched down. But it was still a scary situation. Sawyer was so scared that he was shaking uncontrollably poor guy! Andy was already at work but stayed on the phone with us the entire time we were in the bathroom.

The rest of the day the weather was raining but not severe. We had fun decorating a Gingerbread train...one of our Christmas traditions!

Our first Christmas celebration started Wednesday night with my side of the family! We went to my Dad's house for dinner and to exchange gifts. I got to see my brothers and my nieces and nephews! So fun!!!

Some of my nieces and nephews...and Hayden and Sawyer!

Opening gifts!

Me and my older brothers Chris and Josh!

The next day was Christmas Eve!!! It was still rainy weather. But we had a fun day despite the hot, humid, and rainy weather!

We finished up some wrapping. And Cullen helped!

And we decorated cookies for Santa! Another one of our Christmas traditions! And yes...I took the easy way out this year and bought already made sugar cookies. I also bought Hayden's favorite...snickerdoodle cookies...to decorate. The boys were just as happy decorating these as they are when we roll them out and use the cookie cutters. Works for me!

Later that evening we traveled a half an hour to Andy's parents' church for their Christmas Eve Service. They had asked Hayden and Sawyer to be Joseph and a shepherd in the service. It was a really special evening!

After the service we all headed back to our house. It is our tradition for Andy's parents and his sister and her family to all spend the night at our house on Christmas Eve. This is probably my most favorite tradition of all...having everyone under the same roof Christmas Eve! I cherish those moments!!!

We watched a Christmas movie, spread reindeer food on the front lawn, got a plate of cookies and milk ready for Santa, and said goodbye to our elves Daniel and Mason (they left with Santa when he came that night). This was the first year that Sawyer didn't cry saying goodbye to his elf. A little bittersweet knowing they both are growing up...super fast. :-(

Then it was bedtime for the little guys! But later on that evening...I snuck in the living room...and Santa had come!!!!

Christmas morning I woke up early so I could get my run in. I ran a Christmas Day 5K and by the time I got home the boys and everyone else were awake! It was present time!!!

Sawyer, Ronan, and Hayden!!!

The boys got some really great presents! They were so excited!!! And I got some amazing gifts as well...a new Lululemon skirt and Alex and Ani Disney bangle from my prince! And I got a selfie stick, gift cards, a sweater poncho, and some jewelry from Andy's parents and sister. So very blessed!

Later on that morning my parents joined us. We had Christmas lunch...ham, corn stuff, tator tot casserole, sweet potato casserole, broccoli, and mac and cheese. And lots of desserts! Yum!

We also took some pictures and practiced with the selfie stick! So fun!!

My family and my parents!

And of course that family photo in front of the Christmas tree is a must!

Photo with Andy's side of the family! (And all the people who stayed the night at our house!!!)

It was an amazing day! And one that wore poor Cullen out lol! This was him on the couch Christmas night after Andy's sister and her family left! Lol!

Andy's parents usually stay the night on Christmas night as well and they did this year too! Yay! I don't like it when everyone leaves Christmas Day....because that means Christmas is officially over.

It's also tradition for us to all see a movie together with Andy's parents. Can you guess the movie of choice this year??? STAR WARS!!!! And we all LOVED it!!!

It's definitely been an amazing Christmas weekend! I'm sad it's over! But I'm happy we have the next week off...and can focus on a New Year!

Now it's time for the Weekly Chase! It's a new week and I have new goals to achieve! I hope you will link up your own goals with me too! And feel free to use the badge below in your post too! You can grab the badge HERE! :-)

Here are last week's goals!

Goal #1: Run every day! Yes! And I've greatly enjoyed running in the daylight this week!

Goal #2: Roll, stretch, and ice daily. Yep!

Goal #3: Maintain my weight by logging my calories. 90%. I didn't log my food over Christmas. It was hard to find the foods and their calorie info. But I made sure to enjoy my favorite foods but not over indulge. And the scale...actually went down a pound this week!

Goal #4: Move 11,000 steps or more each day this week. Yep! I've been busy so this goal wasn't hard to achieve!

Goal #5: Run at least 1 run under 2 miles. No. I ran lots this past week.

Goal #6: Clean my house. Yes. I had lots of help from Andy and my boys. We got the house all clean for our company!

Goal #7: Shop for Christmas dinner. Yes. I had to shop in the pouring rain but it had to be done!

Here are the goals for this week!

Every week goals:

Goal #1: Run every day! Keeping the streak alive of course!

Goal #2: Roll, stretch, and ice daily. So important in helping me be able to run every day!

Goal #4: Move 11,000 steps or more each day this week. Love reaching this goal every day!

Goal #5: Run at least 1 run under 2 miles. I really need to take at least one of these "rest" days this week even though being off work gives me more time to run. Don't want to get injured from overuse.

Goal #6: Shop for a running gift. I have one more Christmas party to attend! My Sole2Soul Sisters running group is having a gift exchange! Fun!

Goal #7: Write New Year's blog posts. I also write a few of these at the beginning of a new year. Hoping to write at least one this week.

That's my plan this week! Mostly I want to spend a lot of quality time with my family!

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year!!! 2016 is going to be a great one!